Les épidémies de peste à Rouen

Abstract

The cemetery of Saint-Maclou Aster, situated in the city of Rouen (France, Seine-Maritime, 76), is historically known to have been installed following the epidemic of the plague that ravaged the city in 1348. However, incoherencies in historical texts have installed doubts concerning the presence of pestiferous individuals buried in the cemetery, which led to several preventive (Inrap) and programmed (Craham) dig campaigns between 2016 and 2018. These campaigns’ goals were to better understand the evolution of the cemetery and to search for indications of the epidemic plague of 1348. The dig of the Aster, and of the 560 individuals buried within it, revealed a part of the parish cemetery that was occupied until the end of the XVIIIth century AD, as well as large mass graves that contained up to six individuals buried simultaneously. These mass graves belong to a phase of increased burial density that resemble those of mortality crises. Paleomicrobiological analyses carried out on the teeth of an individual belonging to this phase provided evidence of DNA possibly belonging to that of the plague. The archaeological discoveries could therefore indicate a presence of pestiferous individuals buried in the Saint-Maclou Aster, despite the incoherencies present in historical texts. Moreover, the current study of the sanitary state of buried individuals in the Aster indicate individuals affected by infections such as tuberculosis or syphilis, as well as deficiencies such as rickets or scurvy. These deficiencies reinforce the hypothesis of a population that evolved in an epidemic context.